Riz Ahmed has officially become the first Muslim actor to have been nominated for a Best Actor Oscar. Ahmed’s performance as a rock drummer who loses his hearing in the film ‘Sound of Metal’ has gained the actor a lot of attention and Ahmed is now up for his first ever Academy award.
Previously, Mahershala Ali has won two Best Supporting Actor awards for his roles in ‘Moonlight’ and in ‘Green Book’ but he remained the only Muslim male actor nomination until Ahmed nomination today.
‘Sound of Metal’ is up for six awards at the ceremony this year, including Original Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor and the illustrious Best Picture. The film first premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Ahmed, who’s breakout performance was in the black comedy ‘Four Lions’, learnt American Sign Language and how to drum for the role. The British actor is also up for two BAFTAs this year for his role in ‘Sound of Metal’ and ‘Mogul Mowgli’.
Ahmed’s nomination represents the award’s concious decision to broaden its nominations. Over the past few years, many have called for the Oscars to expand the reaches of their awards past the typical group of white, male filmmakers. The hashtag #OscarsSoWhite came to prominence in 2016, and, that year, actor Will Smith announced that he would be boycotting the awards until the nominations reflected more diversity.
This year, it appears that the ceremony has taken note of the complaints. For the first time ever, two women have been nominated in the Best Director category: Chloe Zhao for ‘Nomadland’ and Emerald Fennell for ‘Promising Young Woman’. Zhao and fellow director Lee Isaac Chung (nominated for ‘Minari’) additionally are two of six directors of Asian descent to be nominated for ‘Best Director’.
In addition to this, the actor nominations have expanded to include far more people of colour than ever before. Ahmed is not only the only Muslim nominee for the Best Actor award, but he and Steven Yeun (nominated for ‘Minari’) are two of only five nominees of Asian descent to ever be up for the award. Alongside them, Chadwick Boseman has been recognised posthumously for his performance in ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’. The Best Supporting Actor category sees three actors of colour nominated with Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeith Stanfield nominated for ‘Judas and the Black Messiah’, and Leslie Odom Jr. for ‘One Night in Miami’.
As well as this, Viola Davis has been nominated for ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’, Andra Day has been nominated for ‘The United States Vs Billie Holiday’ and Yuh-Jung Youn is up for ‘Minari’.
You can find a full list of the nominations here.
